I was going through the thread , [15.11.2012][ICS]PhilZ Touch 3.00 - CWM Based Recovery 6.0.1.5 (Temporary flash) by Phil3759. It talks about flashing a temporary on a stock recovery. I have few queries about this (This is about the concept rather the actual method itself, so though its for S2, posting here)
1. If I understand correctly, stock samsung recovery (3e) looks for signed zips (signed by samsung). So either this is writen for older recovery (2e) which may have allowed unsigned zips OR stock recovery refers to something else (thats not from samsung)
2. If my understanding is correct, there is a separate recovery partition which holds its own recovery kernel separate from the normal boot kernel. In this background, what does flashing insecure kernel means? does this procedure replace the main android kernel? does this insecure kernel also act as recovery kernel when booted in recovery?
3. is there anyway to backup recovery partition (as far as I can think of, this may not be possible. As I have not seen any way to root SGR without installing custom recovery first. and through heimdall, I dont think a dump can be taken of partitions)
That thread is old and doesn't apply to the R in any way.
1) Almost no OEM stock recoveries allow flashing custom signed zips, only those signed by the specific OEM. Sometimes it does work though, if they don't set it up correctly. This is why we could root on JB on the O4X, it allows zips signed with test keys to be flashed.
2) Insecure kernel means you flash a rooted / ADB-enabled kernel on the main boot partition. Yes, it replaces the main kernel. No, it doesn't act, recovery has a totally different kernel. Flashing insecure kernel should only be done from custom recovery, doing so from Odin / Heimdall triggers yellow triangle.
3) It's possible from ADB even if you aren't rooted. You can dump with Heimdall too, Google gives a lot of results.
Thank you Adam77Root
Thank you Adam77Root, that cleared my doubts regarding the recovery.
What I was referring to was like the dump of the partition with dd (or probably tar). On linux, normally if you are not root, you wont have disk access (or unless you are part of disk group). Isn't it the same with android kernel as well?
I have found some info about backup of partiton through heimdall / odin. I am going through that. Will update later on that
( androidforums dot com/exhibit-4g-all-things-root/733167-how-tool-rom-sgh-t759-create-odin-heimdall-backups.html
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1372455
)
Related
I have a fastboot oem unlock'ed Nexus S I9020T. I am interested in the methods I can use to restore stock GRI40 (e.g. android.clients.google.com/packages/ota/google_crespo/f182cf141e6a.signed-soju-ota-102588.f182cf14.zip). I am running stock recovery although I have a copy of
Clockwork Recovery 3.0.2.4 on hand. I don't care about any data on the device -- in fact, I would probably prefer to nuke it all.
One way I have successfully done this already (thanks to instructions on the forum) is to copy the soju ROM to the /sdcard root, boot into recovery and 'apply update from /sdcard'.
Are there other ways I could do this? I can imagine there is using fastboot flash or fastboot flashall might work... and there are probably more that I'm too n00b to imagine.
Thanks!
PS: as a forum newcomer, I'm posting this dev-centric question in this forum per the instructions in this thread. Please let me know if this is the wrong place.
PPS: Managed to post with a crap title, and can't edit that. Sorry!
"fastboot flash" is not for ROMs.. its using for flashing radios/bootloader etc.
Recovery is what you need to flash ROMs.
Updating radios and bootloaders can also be in done in recovery but in a flashable .zip format.
Fastboot flash is for .img(s)
Just use Recovery.. I don't know why you would want to flash it with something else. Alternatively, you can use Odin but I wouldn't recommend it since there isn't any need to. It's a last resort.
Thanks! As a followup, does does flashing a ROM from recovery also flash the radio, boot image, bootloader, recovery (so, for example, will flashing stock GRI40 overwrite clockwork recovery if installed)?
Inside the GRI40 zip, I see boot.img, bootloader.img, and radio.img, so I'm guessing yes, at least partially. Does bootloader.img include a stock recovery?
Thanks again.
I am at a loss as to how to backup the stock recovery partition on my Galaxy Tab 2 10.1 (GT-P5113).
If I follow the rooting instructions in this forum, the first step is to overwrite the stock recovery with CWM. That's fine, but I would like to save the factory recovery first, in case I ever need to flash it back.
If I try to use "dd" to copy from the /dev/block device, of course I get a permission denied, since I do not have root (yet).
If I try to use heimdall dump of the NAND chip, I get an empty file.
I have tried various temp root methods, but as I expected, they do not work (ICS, I assume, has fixed all exploits in its kernel).
Is there any way to do this?
At the present time I do not think so, their is a way to use nvflash and backup the stock recovery for the original galaxy tab I tried that but their is a driver needed that isnt supported, my guess is we will have to wait, however if ODIN can flash maby we should be asking for them to add in a feature to read the block device, btw is it mmcblock08 that stores the recovery img?
Hi all,
I have an GT-I9505 international version, and did some DIY and flashed customized Roms.
Just like to share my experience on this whole Rom flash thing and some basics hopefully can help other new users.
0. Device Code
for Galaxy S4 LTE international, the device code is GT-I9505,
code jfltexx.
So every device has a code and it's useful as these will be commonly referenced in forum posts.
1. Bootloader
For Galaxy S4 there is old bootloader and new bootloader.
The difference is new Bootloader has Knox and in download mode it has the additonal line of "Knox Warranty Void 0X0"
2. Bootup mode
There are 2 special bootup modes. Recovery mode and Download mode.
Download mode is built in and the lowest level.
Odin and Heimdall can be used for this mode to flash customized Recovery.
Recovery mode can do factory reset, partition format and rom install.
3. Warranty,
This is a concern as Rom flashing may likely void warranty and not easy to reclaim back. Knox warranty bit cannot be reversed so far, and almost surely will become 0X1 if do anything customized recovery or Rom.
Another thing is Flash counter. This can be reset by "Triangle Away", but could be a dangerous operation.
Triangle away
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1494114
4. Need to check Bootloader is not locked, and not with the AT&T MF3 firmware before proceed. These 2 scenario are more difficult.
5. Baseband and Roms
Customized Roms are usually pre-rooted, and may require the Baseband to be updated to work.
The Baseband can be safely updated and usually internationally combatible so no need to worry much on this.
Baseband can be downloaded and flashed via Odin. Reboot and confirm it's updated and everything works.
As I read up, if Baseband cannot work still can flash the modem.bin from stock firmware package to restore. So it's important to always prepare a copy of the Stock firmware before the customized rom flash.
6. Full wipe
It's always better do full wipe for new Rom flash.
In order to do a full wipe, need to do a few partition wipes.
As example in ClockworkMod, need to wipe /data, /cache, /dalvik, and /system
It's important to format the /system also before install new Rom.
7. Install customized Rom
The steps are generally like this,
Boot into Download mode (home+power+down buttons), use Odin/Heimdall to flash customized recovery.
Then before stock rom bootup, boot into recovery (home+power+up button), then do full wipe first, then install the customized rom.
Reboot, will be all set.
Note: In order to bootup into Recovery mode, don't press power button too long as this will reboot phone again. When once see the blue line in the top corner, can quickly release power button already it will boot into Recovery. This confused me quite a while.
8. Summary
There are a lot of info and posts can be searched in web and xda developer forum. Xda developer forum in general info is better.
Read up and prepare before do the actual thing. It's important to backup. I lost my SD card data once, it's painful. The data files better be backup.
Get the Roms and tools ready, in case any issue unexpected come up can still revert to backup plan. such as flash back Stock firmware via Odin.
Happy playing with your Android device.
I will be following through this thread to answer questions that I can.
I get the stock firmware pack from here (need to register as forum user first):
http://www.sammobile.com/
For customized Rom wise, so far I've used 2, CyanogenMod and Omega Rom,
The first is Google stock like experience and Latter is more Samsung stock based.
I'm using ClockworkMod recovery, so don't really have experience with other recovery like Philz touch or TWRP
Somewhat new to this, but I successfully rooted my 6633 which has stock 4.4.4 (Which I re-installed the stock firmware fresh). Afterward I Installed TWRP and attempted to create a custom recovery (I could never boot into recovery and tried many times and many ways), and assume I must at least create a custom recovery. Anyway, in attempting to create the recovery I tried to flash the img file. However, I could not find an image for the 6633 and (stupidly) flashed the image for the z3c. But other than freezing the phone the first time I shut it down, everything on the phone works fine. But a recovery was never created. I then found an img for the 6633 and tried to flash it but simply got an error message saying that "Failed remote: image is not a boot image". Apparently either the original mistakenly loaded (z3c) image won't let me flash another over it (unlikely, since it may have never even loaded) or (more likely) the new correct image is bad or corrupted. It is called "bootZ3dualmonxtest01.img" and was downloaded from another site. Searching this site I did find a kernel for the Z3 6653 but there is not any kernel for the 6633.
Again the phone works fine and I can do some file management things in the root, but the whole reason for doing this rooting process is so I can flash a mod to fix the crappy ringtone volume, that I located in another thread on this forum. It's been a journey & I had a lot of fun learning, but I'm not even sure that, in the end, the mod will even fix the ringtone volume (although posters on that thread claim it works). But that's a whole other issue. (lol). Sorry for the wordiness. I read the forums a lot and tried to be thorough. I know there are a lot of really smart people helping newbies like me. Any help is appreciated.
First of all, you can't flash custom kernels on Locked bootloader (I guess you've never unlocked it)
Second, if you wan't just to flash a zip file with sound mod then after rooting and installing TWRP, boot in TWRP and Install the zip. Thats it. You don't need custom kernel or any other recovery. TWRP is fine enough.
G-FACE said:
First of all, you can't flash custom kernels on Locked bootloader (I guess you've never unlocked it)
Second, if you wan't just to flash a zip file with sound mod then after rooting and installing TWRP, boot in TWRP and Install the zip. Thats it. You don't need custom kernel or any other recovery. TWRP is fine enough.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks so much for your reply. However, the Bootloader was unlocked the whole time. In fact, the process did seem to correctly flash the wrong kernel (xperia Z3c). The reason I was trying to create a custom recovery is that I am apparently unable to boot to TWRP. I had read in another forum that the Z3 Dual does not come with a stock recovery and that a custom one has to be installed.
In any case, I followed the instructions to boot to TWRP (which gave a couple of methods), and it continues to just either just boot normally, or it I get an error "Damaged SD Card" and I lose some minor functionality. In that case, the phone won't shut down and I have to hold the power button and up volume to kill it. But then if I power it on, everything is normal. This error sequence only occurs when I try to boot into recovery.
Is it possible that when I flashed the wrong kernel (using the Xperia Z3c kernel) that I created this issue? I assumed that the reason for the error was that there was no stock recovery and one could be created by flashing the kernel image.
There is no stock recovery on Z3.
Here is a custom kernel for D6633, but you need to be on stock 23.0.F.1.74 firmware: http://forum.xda-developers.com/z3/development/root-stock-kernel-twrp-v01-test-28-09-t2889794
You can ask the dev there to prepare for you a custom kernel for another firmware version if you want.
So I have a j700p on boost, rooted it thanks to messi, installed xposed (credits to him too) and I'm using flashfire to flash zips. The problem is I want to install a custom rom and experiment with more risky things, which I'm too afraid to do because I can't backup and restore easily without a custom recovery.
Now I was doing some reading looking for guaranteed compatible roms for my phone, and a couple posts said that you don't need cr too install a custom rom since we have flashfire, however, that still doesn't cover backing up the phone and restoring without cr available. Should I brick my device or get it stuck in a boot loop I don't want to have to wipe and start with stock rom then reroot and install all my stuff again and again.
That leaves me stuck wondering what I should do. Should I just wait patiently while someone develops a cr for it (which I haven't seen anyone post about doing)? Or man up and hope some of these work? I really want to try to create a compatible twrp, but I know nothing about coding with xda, or with any language for that matter. I wouldn't know where to begin with it anyways.
Sorry if it seems like this isn't really a question but the above paragraph contains the questions I have.
Thx for reading!
What id do since its a custom rom and a custom roms dont require the userdata partition with the custom system. Stock roms require a userdata partition with the stock system to be flashed in a tar. id make a backup of the custom roms system, boot, and custom recovery in img format and then use unified toolkits basic toolkit to make the system and boot and custom recovery img a single odin flashable tar with the auto detect partitions option before it builds it.. test it just to make sure it flashes.
Partitions backup and restore..
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=ma.wanam.partitions
Unifed toolkit
http://www.skipsoft.net/download/uat-v152/
Toolkit instructions.. download it.. extract it to c:... copy youre custom recovery and boot image and custom system imgs to unified toolkits input folder... go into unified toolkit run it the first time download some files then press 99 for basic tookit.. press 8 for make odin flashable tar... pick make single image of multiple images.... pick auto detect images.... let it build... exit once its done then go to unified toolkits output folder and there is you're odin flashable tar.
CoffeeNAndroid said:
What id do since its a custom rom and a custom roms dont require the userdata partition with the custom system. Stock roms require a userdata partition with the stock system to be flashed in a tar. id make a backup of the custom roms system, boot, and custom recovery in img format and then use unified toolkits basic toolkit to make the system and boot and custom recovery img a single odin flashable tar with the auto detect partitions option before it builds it.. test it just to make sure it flashes.
Partitions backup and restore..
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=ma.wanam.partitions
Unifed toolkit
http://www.skipsoft.net/download/uat-v152/
Toolkit instructions.. download it.. extract it to c:... copy youre custom recovery and boot image and custom system imgs to unified toolkits input folder... go into unified toolkit run it the first time download some files then press 99 for basic tookit.. press 8 for make odin flashable tar... pick make single image of multiple images.... pick auto detect images.... let it build... exit once its done then go to unified toolkits output folder and there is you're odin flashable tar.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thx for the fast reply like always coffee! That's the thing though, I'm on stock rom rooted and xposed, but I'm trying to get custom rom, but there's no custom recovery for boost mobile j7. I'm not worried about actually installing without the custom recovery (thank you once again chainfire) my issue is I can't restore any rooted backups on a bricked or bootlooping phone WITH that same bricked or bootlooping phone because because the recovery is stock, so the only option is to flash a stock rom back on, root it again, xpose it, then try again. The solution to this would be to make an Odin, adb, or fastboot flashable back up of the rooted stock rom I have now, but I can't make a flashable backup like that because there's no custom recovery to make one, do you see my dilemma?
Datipad said:
Thx for the fast reply like always coffee! That's the thing though, I'm on stock rom rooted and xposed, but I'm trying to get custom rom, but there's no custom recovery for boost mobile j7. I'm not worried about actually installing without the custom recovery (thank you once again chainfire) my issue is I can't restore any rooted backups on a bricked or bootlooping phone WITH that same bricked or bootlooping phone because because the recovery is stock, so the only option is to flash a stock rom back on, root it again, xpose it, then try again. The solution to this would be to make an Odin, adb, or fastboot flashable back up of the rooted stock rom I have now, but I can't make a flashable backup like that because there's no custom recovery to make one, do you see my dilemma?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
You could make a stock tar rooted with stock recovery but youd have to include youre userdata partition since its on stock and you could do that with the toolkit and it would be odin flashable..
So do i have to use partitions backup and restore to get the partitions? because boot and recovery dont show up in the list, also my J7 isnt showing up on toolkit either with drivers installed and updated.
edit: Wont show up in windows explorer but shows in devices, tried switching to ptp mode and still no luck, trying to unistall driver and reinstall it but it looks like its also having trouble doing that
edit2: Got my phone to show up, and all is good with pc to phone connection, but the app still cant detect boot or recovery for some reason. I tried searching and so far i cant find anyone else who had the same problem, nor do any search results for that even exist. Ill keep trying though.